I was a 29 year old mother of three who had spent eleven years with my love. I was widowed. This diary begins five years after his death. I hope to capture the memories of this journey. The lessons. The joy. The sadness. The humor. The faith. The hope.

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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

COMING BACK HOME

They all arrived safely on Thursday and by Friday Chris was back in the emergency room. They drained his lungs again. Monday he went to the cancer center with his brother and sister. They drained his right lung again and wanted to send him home. When I got the call saying they were sending him home, I was upset. He benefited from oxygen and the hospital bed to sleep in. It made him so much more comfortable. I felt if they were going to send him home -they needed to send all of that with him.

Thankfully, his siblings fought enough to get him admitted. They put a drain tube in his right lung in an attempt to drain it more completely. On Wednesday they injected talc powder into his lung hoping it would 'dry it out' for good. Meanwhile, his left lung was filling with fluid and because of his difficulty breathing he was pretty much 'bed ridden'. His abdomen was still in a lot of pain, so they had him on some pretty strong narcotics. Between these two factors, by Thursday his intestines had gone to sleep.

The doctors were anxious, as was I, to get him started on some chemotherapy. The plan was to have him on an infusion every Monday for two weeks. Then one week off, and repeat for six months. The chemo would not be as strong as what he was on in the spring... but they needed to wait to start the chemo until his breathing was under control and his intestines woke back up.